Australian Research Council CEO to Step Down in April 2012. (December 7, 2011)

The federal Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, has announced that Professor Margaret Sheil, Australian Research Council CEO, has resigned effective April 2012 to take up the post of provost (i.e. senior deputy vice-chancellor) of The University of Melbourne.

Professor Sheil will most probably be best remembered for overseeing the implementation of Senator Carr's drive to institute Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA), the cataloguing and scoring of the nation's published peer-reviewed research from 2003 through 2010, including the "citation data period" (see below).

In his media release Senator Carr wrote: "One of her great strengths is her capacity to come armed with a proposed solution, rather than just identifying a problem."
Senator Carr said Professor Sheil had been a trusted adviser to him on research policy matters over his time as minister, a comment not offered at the time of the resignation of Professor Penny Sackett, Senator Carr's first appointment of a Chief Scientist for Australia.